White Cloud church buses in Grand Rapids homeless for a meal and a sermon

Press Photos/Hollyn JohnsonJoe Smith, right, and other residents of homeless missions ride a bus to the White Cloud Empowerment Center Church of God in Christ, where they attended a service and received breakfast, lunch and clothing.

On this cold and sunny morning heading to White Cloud, he feels pretty good.

"When you get out here it's almost like you're looking back at the city, and the Holy Spirit gives you the vision to see things differently," Sutton says as the bus he's riding rumbles through the country along M-37.

Sutton awoke early at the Guiding Light Mission to board this bus by 9 a.m. Along with about 90 other residents of the mission and other downtown shelters, he is headed to a church that will feed his soul and fill his stomach.

Since January, the White Cloud Empowerment Center Church of God in Christ has picked homeless people up on South Division Avenue and driven them 45 miles north. On this day, the little church of about 50 worshippers will lay out a Thanksgiving meal and send each visitor home with $5, courtesy of the Rev. Robert E. Smith Sr.

Sutton appreciates the money and meal, but it's the spiritual peace he craves most.

"I look at it almost as a weekly vacation," says Sutton, 58, a former mental-health worker who is dressed in a Miami Dolphins jacket. "It's like you're drained from the struggle in the city. You come up to the mountain and get refreshed and renewed."

A few rows behind him, Wanda Ortiz sits with her three children. She looks forward to a day in the company of caring Christians.

Members of the White Cloud Empowerment Center Church of God in Christ, L-R, Angela Mitchell, Mary Ann Martin, and Manessa Glover prepare dinner for visitors from the Guiding Light Mission.

"Everybody is so nice," says Ortiz, 31, who stays at Mel Trotter Ministries.

That seems to be the case as the bus arrives at the church two miles north of White Cloud. A second bus arrives shortly. The visitors line up for breakfast served by volunteers including Mary Ann Martin, a caterer.

"We help build lives," says Martin, 45. "It was a perfect opportunity to reach out and help."

Neil, a recovering alcoholic with a bad back, gratefully eats pancakes and hot dogs. The church paid for his prescription plus a phone card and bus tickets. The money helps, but he comes here for worship, he insists.

"They're just a good inspiration," says Neil, 49, declining to give his last name. "It helps me so I'm not depressed all the time."

The Rev. Smith makes it clear he will not put up with depression, as he opens the service at 11 a.m. to a sanctuary jammed with 100-plus people. He tells them to tell their pew-mates, "If you're going to be sad, move to another row. This is the glad row."

With a rich voice and warm smile, Smith exudes confidence that God is here and ready to help them.

"It is God's desire that you enjoy your life every day," he tells a motley congregation in jeans, sweatshirts and snappy ties. "When you leave here you'll be better off than when you came."

Then comes the mantra of his ministry: "We don't do hand-outs. We do hand-ups."

That philosophy has driven the program since the first van drove to Grand Rapids in January. Initially designed to transport college students, the ministry caught fire when the church focused on the city's homeless and hurting. It's grown from about a dozen riders to nearly 100.

"Many of them have lost hope and believe their lives are over," Smith says in his tiny office. "We can see that we're giving people hope. That's been my message since we started this program: just preaching that there's hope for you, that your life is not over."

Dedicated to the mission

Smith has preached his hopeful message at White Cloud for 42 years. All that time he has commuted from his home in Flint, where he worked at General Motors and now has a street ministry.

Besides providing them a spiritual home, the country church's inner-city ministry helps people with rent payments, utility bills, bus passes and prescriptions. Many have found housing, cars or jobs as a result, Smith says.

Rev. Robert Smith talks with Kelvin Heath after his sermon at the White Cloud Empowerment Center Church of God in Christ.

"God promised me if I taught people the faith, he would do the rest," says Smith, 71.

Church leaders interview those who ask for help to make sure their need is real. The church also offers a clothes closet, training to obtain commercial driver's licenses, and Bible study, worship and meals on Tuesdays and Fridays.

It's all funded by the church, including money that had been set aside for a new building, Smith says. He estimates the church has spent $70,000 to $80,000 on the outreach program, far more than its annual income of perhaps $40,000. Smith hands out his own money in services each week, and kitchen workers pay for the food they prepare.

Despite the deficit spending, Smith is confident he will be able to sustain a program that has revitalized a previously dwindling church. He adds, "I expect as long as I live to be doing this."

In last Sunday's worship, many testified to the changes in their lives: new jobs, new places to live, renewed faith.

"We believe the mission of the church is to reach out for the lost, for the hurting, for the needy," outreach Pastor Donald Barnett says. "It's pretty exciting to see people's lives being changed."

Deloris Davis attributes her new job to church-furnished bus passes that enabled her to put in applications. The West Side Grand Rapids resident says she has been blessed since coming to White Cloud Empowerment Center.

"My faith just grows and grows every time I come here," says Davis, 46. "You can tell God is using someone. He can reach us in Grand Rapids. He can reach us in White Cloud. He can reach us everywhere."

Glen Stump III owes his home to the church. It is the van in which he currently lives. The church paid for his license plates and insurance. Now he picks up church-goers in Grand Rapids and hopes to obtain a trucker's license with church help.

"As soon as I step in that door, I feel the Lord here in this church," says Stump, 32.

He's there all right, Pastor Smith tells worshippers during the service. "As long as the Lord provides, we don't let people leave here broke," he promises.

Mandy Straight gives her praises during Rev. Smith's sermon.

Finding peace

Extolling the virtues of work, he says God wants them to be successful. But he pointedly cautions, "We are not helping people to buy Johnnie Walker (scotch). That's destructive."

Then, pulling out wads of $1 bills he says came from his insurance dividends, Smith invites people who need cash to come forward for $5.

Most do, after Smith prays for their prosperity: "For many, this year of 2008 will be the year of blessings, of increase, of turnaround. It is so, in Jesus' name."

Smith asks those who are able to reciprocate by leaving $1 for the needy. Many do, but some also leave the sanctuary after receiving their $5. "Looks like I lost some," Smith says with a smile.

He hasn't lost Charles Sutton. Far from the gritty streets of Grand Rapids, he breathes in the serenity of a chilly wind blowing through the pines outside the church.

"Here we are on the side of a highway, miles from anywhere," he muses. "The peace and the calmness and the message that pastor delivers allow me a clear head to go back into the city."

Looking forward to Thanksgiving, he gives thanks for the positive perspective the church has given him, and for a new president that gives him hope.

"It's given me the internal fortitude to fight the good fight of faith," Sutton says. "I try to let my little light shine.

"Even though we're going through difficult times in this nation, there's a change in the wind," he adds confidently. "I thank God to be alive at this time."